Our Faces as Barometers of the Faithfulness of God
Tim Keller's complaint in prayer was a good one. In Songs of Jesus, he pled in the devotional, "Lord, how easily I get shaken. Criticism, a sense of failure, changes and losses – all these things rattle me. Help me to live in the “kingdom that cannot be shaken“ (Hebrews 12:28).
I'm not there yet. I don't have that indomitable perspective, and I want it more than ever. The state of my heart as reflected on my face is going to have a compounding impact worth so much more than the latest criticism, or failure, or changes, or losses now that my wife and I will be joining Team Parenthood. The child we have been privileged to raise won't be able to filter through the day's events to mine out the evidence of God's overarching goodness toward me. She hasn't my bulging file of the evidence of the faithfulness of God. She will experience life moment by moment, and very often my countenance will be an indicator to her of whether life as God allows it will provide a safe environment for her to get up when she falls down.
Granted, if God left parenthood only to the consistently beatific, an army of angels would be needed to perpetuate the human race. Instead, He has given to people who vary in our moods and experiences the opportunity to repent and reinterpret in front of our families on a daily basis. Given to us, then, is the chance to explain and reexplain as we lie down and as we rise up, as we go out and as we go in. If we, as parent, as spouse, as friend, as mentor, as employee reconsider that we were too easily shaken yesterday from reflecting the goodness of God, His mercy this morning presents yet another opportunity, yet another angle of light showing us His glory, so we can point others to it. We are rattled, it seems, so we can rebuild, and invite others to the raising.
Dare we ask, then, what impression we give of the God we serve? Are we ready to know how often we complain of Him, how often our fear undermines our proclaimed theology? In the stuff of such brave questions, however, comes the opportunity to progress in small, stumbling steps, to interweave into our testimony the reality that we are learning more of Him, and seeing more of the marvel that He chooses to testify of Himself even through the likes of us. If yesterday's anxiety or complaint distracted from that, today's recanting of the same can point back to Him.
I'm not there yet. I don't have that indomitable perspective, and I want it more than ever. The state of my heart as reflected on my face is going to have a compounding impact worth so much more than the latest criticism, or failure, or changes, or losses now that my wife and I will be joining Team Parenthood. The child we have been privileged to raise won't be able to filter through the day's events to mine out the evidence of God's overarching goodness toward me. She hasn't my bulging file of the evidence of the faithfulness of God. She will experience life moment by moment, and very often my countenance will be an indicator to her of whether life as God allows it will provide a safe environment for her to get up when she falls down.
Granted, if God left parenthood only to the consistently beatific, an army of angels would be needed to perpetuate the human race. Instead, He has given to people who vary in our moods and experiences the opportunity to repent and reinterpret in front of our families on a daily basis. Given to us, then, is the chance to explain and reexplain as we lie down and as we rise up, as we go out and as we go in. If we, as parent, as spouse, as friend, as mentor, as employee reconsider that we were too easily shaken yesterday from reflecting the goodness of God, His mercy this morning presents yet another opportunity, yet another angle of light showing us His glory, so we can point others to it. We are rattled, it seems, so we can rebuild, and invite others to the raising.
Dare we ask, then, what impression we give of the God we serve? Are we ready to know how often we complain of Him, how often our fear undermines our proclaimed theology? In the stuff of such brave questions, however, comes the opportunity to progress in small, stumbling steps, to interweave into our testimony the reality that we are learning more of Him, and seeing more of the marvel that He chooses to testify of Himself even through the likes of us. If yesterday's anxiety or complaint distracted from that, today's recanting of the same can point back to Him.
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